Star Wars D20 Revised Session 1

Alright.  I know we have been playing AD&D for awhile and that game is still going strong.  All that is happening is that instead of every Tuesday it will be every other Tuesday and it will alternate with our new Star Wars D20 Revised game.  Jayson will be the Game Master for the Star Wars game and I will be the Dungeon Master for the AD&D game.  So, without giving a long introduction of everything, I will get to what actually happened in our first meeting for Star Wars.

October 11th, 2011

Step One: Character Creation

I have never played this edition, so I thought it best to wait for Jayson to show up in order to actually start, plus I didn't know which D20 Star Wars we were using, Core or Revised.  When he showed up, that was the first thing I asked him.  He said that we were using revised, but that the Core book had some interesting Prestige classes and that he would allow them.  I'm like cool, but I literally just got both books that day.  I asked him what I needed to do.   He said that I should roll 4d6, choose the highest three, re-roll 1s and 2s, and choose the best set of 6 out of the 3 sets.

Set 1          Set 2          Set 3
 10               14              17
 16               13              16
 14               17              15
 15               13              14
 13               16              12
 14               14              13

I chose set 3.  We could use the stats in any order.  I chose a Gungan for a race/species and they receive a +2 Con and a -2 Wis modifier.  So then my Gungan Jedi Guardian was selected.  I knew I wanted a Jedi, but I didn't know which one.  I selected the Guardian because of the +1 Base Attack Bonus (BAB) at first level.  So then my Gungan's stats looked like this:

Str:    17
Dex:  16
Con:  17
Int:    14
Wis:  11
Cha:  12

At this point, I didn't realise that all the force powers he could choose from were mostly Cha or Wis related.  Some were Con though.  I selected the Alter for the force training and selected Control for my first level feat.  Mostly so I can heal others and heal myself.  Better than medpacs anyways.

Being a Jedi Guardian I start with a lightsaber.  I also have proficiency with the groups Blaster Pistols and Simple Weapons.  I also chose to have a light blaster pistol, knife and quarterstaff.  I also received a utility belt and a comlink from my Master.  I also purchased a all-temperature cloak and a grappling spike launcher.

Step Two:  Backstory

My master found me on Naboo when I was young.  He trained me for years.  It was odd for me since my master is human.  He was in hiding since Jedi were being hunted, but since we both felt the disturbance in the force when the Emperor and Darth Vader both were eliminated, we traveled to Coruscant afterwords.  After we arrived, we headed straight for the Jedi Temple.

Step Three:  Introduction

Ever since I arrived on this planet all I've done is clean.  I was given a broom and a dustpan.  I cleaned the Jedi Temple til I couldn't clean anymore and then I cleaned it again.  Perseverance might be the lesson, but I am bored.  I want to go and explore, find things and tinker, maybe build a droid or fix a computer.  I need to learn to repair things though.

So I set out to explore, went up to see if my master was still in the council chamber discussing things.  I was stopped by a Wookie and a Cerean who said I couldn't go any farther up.  So I went down, saw that all doors leading pass the garage level were all security locked up.  Went up, trying to go outside, remembered that I shouldn't go outside alone, but in a group.  Stopped in main lobby and saw an Ewok, a Kel Dor and a Mon Calamari.  Asked the Mon Calamari if he wanted to go explore outside.  He said he had been waiting for someone to ask him.  On our way to the outside door, I heard the Ewok trying to sneak behind us and I waved him to join us.  When we arrived outside the temple, we had two directions to choose from.  Left or Right.  We went left and found ourselves in the diplomatic part of the city.  We stopped at a signpost and were trying to figure out where to go when a mysterious figure said go to your third left.  So we went to our third left and found ourselves outside the Galleria.  A pseudo-arcade shopping mall which went ten stories up and down from the entrance level and was quite huge (think Mall of America on each floor big).  The Ewok started talking, but I didn't understand him, but the Mon Calamari seemed to and I asked him what the Ewok had said.  He said that the Ewok had told him that Master Luke had gone to the Senate Building.  So that mysterious black-cloaked figure that I had seen around and masters bowing to was none other than Master Luke Skywalker.  How interesting I thought to myself.   While in the Galleria, I noticed a female Gungan and three child Gungan that called her Grandma, she was only a little older than my mother since the kids looked about 4, 5, and 6 respectively.  We met them in the water park that charged ten credits for the day.  I left and started looking in the Droid store.  After about 25 minutes, I received a hail on my comlink that said to get back to the temple soon.

When we arrived back at the temple, I saw a human woman talking with some Jedi and some other people who had arrived off of a transport.  When we walked inside, she told us that we would be leaving tomorrow and that we should prepare.  I asked her if we were to prepare for battle or for departure.  All she said was yes.  I asked if I would get to see my master before leaving.  She said that is where I should be headed now.  I went to my room, since that is the only place I knew and found a note saying that I should come below to the lightsaber training room.  The training rooms were above the Jedi library and below the Jedi housing.  The garage was below the Jedi library.  I reported to the training room and my master exhausted my so much that I couldn't move.  He floated me to my room and laid me on my bed.  The last thing he said to me was that the next mission should help me with my training.  And I slept.

This is where we called the night.  My character didn't meet Luis's character.  He has a Trandoshan Scout, but that is all I know.  His character arrived on the transport my character saw when he arrived back from the Galleria.  That is all I know.  Until next time, which will be this game, have fun and safe gaming.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 11

After moving on from the cemetery, we traveled towards the Temple of Gruumsh that we have on one of the maps we possess.  We arrived on the outskirts of the temple and I did a little scouting and found a village of orcs and the temple.  We decided to sneak in after Bram used the scroll of sending.  Through the scroll, we discovered that the mage was being held in the cave on the far side of the temple ruins and that there were some bad guys in there as well.  We snuck in hugging the wood palisade and made our way towards the cave where we encountered four Orog guards blocking the entrance of the cave.  While moving forward, a twig snapped under my foot and since they heard it, we were discovered.  We dispatched the four with ease.  We then proceeded into the cave, knowing that the ones inside were aware of our presence since one of the four guards grunted something inside alerting the other guards.

Temple of Gruumsh and Village of Bloody Skull

We made our way inside to see a cave with a 40 foot ceiling and nine iron cells, one with a large double door and one makeshift wooden shack with a door.  Since we knew that there were guards inside the cave, we thought they had gone into the shack and hid.  So we surrounded the entrance to the small shack and opened the door.  As soon as we did though, to cell doors clicked open and there were six other guards bearing down on us.  One of them shouting orders.  We fought them as best we could, however, I fell down twice, Bram fell down, and Nightwind died even after he consumed the whole potion of growth, but when his huge form fell, it knocked one into the fire and he burned alive.  Fortunately, his fall caused the one large cell that held the humans, the other cells held other demi-humans that were slaves, and the mage that we had encountered before noticed the door was unhinged and made his way out with two other humans.  The other two looked like fighters.  The mage made his way towards the shack while the other two tackled the one Orog while Ja'Lil battled the leader of their group.  There were only two left when the mage emerged and when he exited the shack he took out both the leader and the other Orog with a ring he possessed.  He raised Nightwind from the dead and healed me and Nightwind.  We then looted what we could find.  We are now leaving the cave hoping that Bram, who was healed by Ja'Lil, can cause a distraction with his wand of fire.

This is where we left off.  Until next time, good gaming and play safe.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 10

We started out by rewinding time a little.  While we were in the camp of the army we had cure disease cast upon Bram and Solon.  Bram had his affliction of rabies cured while Solon had his debilitating disease cured.  It took one week for Solon to heal.  We missed the full moon.  We then decided to search out the Black Tree Ruins anyways.  That is when we defeated the Ogre.  That is where we begin.

We decided to set up camp and Ja'Lil caught some fish while I, Solon, foraged for some berries and greens.  Nightwind gathered firewood and cooked a delicious meal.  We then set out and about one half a day later we found a place to start our search.  We noticed the lack of any game or edible anything.  I, Solon, created signs along the way so we could find our way back to this place.  We then headed back to Trynt.  On our way, we defeated a group of four ettercaps.  We made our way back to Trynt, sold the items we found in the Ogre's cave and decided to get cleaned up at the bath house.  I got an ugly, fat, human girl and was upset to see Bram the Oblivious, which is what I am calling him since he burned us with his firewall spell from his fire wand while we battled the ettercaps, who had gotten the elf lass I had last time.  When we dropped off our stuff at Korgle's we noticed a yellow ribbon on our door and a letter inside saying:

To All Members of the Security Class

    We the Guild of Security have
changed the policy regarding
    the telling of colors and have
decided to hang the ribbon
    of the chosen color on your front
door.  However, we are raising
    the protection fee from 50 gp
to 100gp per year.

                                      - Thanks for being faithful
                                         MANAGEMENT

We decided to go and check on our Paladin friend since nobody had been to his temple in the last two weeks other than us that we noticed.  Ja'Lil seemed very upset by this.  So we set out to the Shrine of Gruumsh, the patron god of Orcs, hopeful that we could find him.  Besides, we kinda were working for the army people.

We left Trynt the next morning and paid Korgle for the rooms and boarding of my mules for one month.  It was 10 gp for one month for us and 20 gp for the month for the mules.  We took our horses and went to see if we could find our Paladin friend.  We traveled the road and passed the encampment where the army had camped and Bram and I were healed and while we passed a cemetery late on the third day, we were attacked by undead zombies.  Ja'Lil turned most of them and slayed the one he missed.  We will continue on to rescue our friend.

This is where we ended the session.  Everyone is having fun, so until next time.  Safe gaming and have fun.

The Hiatus of Game

Well, because of work, Jayson has been working overtime and we haven't met in three weeks.  However, this will change and we will start playing again as soon as his overtime ordeal is over.  So, until I start posting about our adventures in AD&D 2nd Edition Revised again, I won't be posting much.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Rules and Hints

These rules and hints are for AD&D 2nd Edition (Revised).  Hopefully, I can actually start doing these on a regular basis since I play a lot of games.  Anyways, to the reason I am writing this.

The first hint is for DM's running giant rats and DISEASE in General.  If a giant rat bites, it has a 5% chance of inflicting a debilitating disease for each wound inflicted.  Meaning, for every time a character is bit by a giant rat start accumulating this 5% chance.  For example, say you have a fighter and a thief, the fighter is bit once during the entire encounter, but the thief sustains three bites during the entire encounter.  This means at the end of the fight the thief has a 15% chance of acquiring a debilitating disease while the fighter only has a 5% chance.  This is only one interpretation and frankly, the nicer one.  However, another way of reading this "wound" can be interpretted as one wound equals one hit point or hp.  For example, say the fighter above took 4 hp worth of damage while the thief only took three hp worth of damage overall (one hp worth of damage from each bite).  Now this means the fighter has a 20% chance of catching the disease while the thief has the same 15% chance.  This is just an example.  Now where to find this debilitating disease, well I looked in the Monstrous Manual (Revised), the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) and the Player's Handbook (PHB).  Couldn't find it anywhere under disease.  Then I looked one last time in the index and the effects of debilitating disease are actually under the Priest spell for Cure Disease when it's reversed into Cause Disease.  Cause Disease and cause debilitating and fatal diseases.  A third way to look at this would be to use the worse or best of the two ways or a combination of the two.

Next, some conflicting news on scrolls and spells.  Given the books I have, and I haven't skimmed them looking in evey nook and cranny for the answer, but I have looked some and I didn't see anyplace that said a wizard has to be of such a level in order to use a scroll, but he has to be of a certain level in order to memorize a spell.  The chapter on magic in the DMG page 61 has some rules on transcribing spells and learning spells.  There are some other useful rules on page 119 of the DMG which cover creation.  The most useful information on scrolls is on page 196 of the DMG.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 9

So we made it back to Korgle's Karriage and had some dinner and as Korgle was serving us he asked if we had heard the news.  We asked what news and he explained to us about the troop of men who had come through town.  Marched right through and only one of the three men on horseback stopped and talked to the wizards at the Wizard's Guild then walked across the road and nailed something to the door of the town hall.  We said we'd check it out after dinner.  We finished eating and headed towards the town hall.  Ja'Lil and I, Solon, were the only ones who can read, so we told the rest of the group what the note said.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

To all who can read this message
within the city.  We are calling all
who are able to track.  All those who
are willing, meet us two days ride
North of the city.  We are camped
there.

Commander Grimm

We went back to Korgle's and told him what the note on the door said.  The message itself was on very fine parchment attached to a leather flap with an iron ring in the center which is what the metal spike nailed to the door of the town hall went through.  We stayed the night at Korgle's and left in the morning on our horses.  I left the wagon and mule team at the inn.  We have paid for ten days worth.

We left through the North Gate and followed the rode.  We came across some hiding kobolds, just three, and since they were trying to hide, we just frightened them off.  We then travelled further and rested the night without incident.  Before we rested, we sprinkled the salt on the old map we had found in Phrum Castle and it changed before our eyes.  The riddle of Shyvaltis is now present and the compass direction has changed.

The Riddle of Shyvaltis

Follow the
moonlit path
under the full moon
Until you see the door
that leads you down

The second day we were taking our mid-afternoon break and were surprised by a group of six rats.  I was bit pretty hard and I don't feel very good.  I feel very weak.  We continued on and ran into the men's encampment later that evening.  I was cured by a cleric there.  We exchanged information with the wizard and commander of the group by giving information we had attained from the maps we had.  The commander asked us to scout for the orc group, which according to him is like 500 strong.  We informed him that there might be a village near the ruins on his map which correspond to the Temple of Gruumsh that we have on our map from Grimml.  The wizard then gave a scroll of Message to Bram and was told to use it if we find the orcs.  We also got a map of the area that the wizard had used scrying on.  We spent the evening in the camp.

We left the next day and traveled towards the Black Tree Ruins, which isn't on the scrying map.  The Dry Well is also not on the scrying map.  We traveled the first day without incident.  The second day we encountered an Ogre, but he seemed pretty dumb.  We followed his tracks back to his cave and found some interesting loot.  He only had a couple gold coins on his person, but his cave turned up a gold snuff box worth 1200 gp, a wooden box with a set of real silverware worth 150 gp, a jade statue of Ilmater worth 4000 gp and a Ornamental dagger with an antler hilt and sheath.  We also found about four gems.

This is where we left off.  Next time we'll hopefully be at the Black Tree Ruins.  Until next time, game safe and have fun.  The following pictures are the treasure map from Phrum before and after the transformation, which isn't much, the map from Grimml on the treasure map area and the Scrying map that we received from the wizard at the encampment.

Treasure Map from Phrum Castle

Treasure map section containing transformation changes

Map from Grimml

Scry Map Overview

Northwest Scry Map corner

Southwest Scry Map corner

Southeast Scry Map corner

Northeast Scry Map corner

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 8

So we headed back to the room that had the Giant Toads in it and Nightwind bent the bars to get into the last tunnel and I, Solon, bent the bars to get into the last corner of the sewers.  Nightwind lead the way and we discovered a Giant Rat Lair that had a big yellow rat thing with gigantic teeth seemingly calling the shots.  We dispatched them quite quickly and gathered their heads to add to the amount of gold we would get from Mary at Mary's Market.  We searched the area and found some copper coins and a magical javelin +1 and a periapt of health.  It was quite a find.   We then headed back to the fourth tunnel and headed to the right.  The tunnel curved sharply and the water started getting deeper when we entered into a small room with a concrete slab that had a set of stairs leading up.  The stairs lead into a basement that was being used as a cellar.  The stairs in the corner lead up to what was a wooden barn that was used as a hay storage for animals, but it didn't look like it was currently being used by anyone.

We were on our way out when we were ambushed by some watch spiders.   We dispatched the spiders, but they were quite powerful and when we searched the barn, we found some coins and a gem worth about 50 gp.  We then headed outside and noticed the walls of Trynt to the north of us.  The barn trail that was used by the wagons hauling the hay looked like it hadn't been used in quite some time.  We headed into town and went to Mary's Market where she marveled at the yellow rat with the big teeth.  However, she paid us the 20 gp per rat head that she said she would and gave it to us in platinum.  We then visited the Temple of Helm for healing and noticed that they had a supply of potions that could be had for a small donation.  We stocked our gear with the potions and donated about 1300 gp to the temple for healing potions and antidotes and four potions of extra healing as well.  We then went to Korgle's  and asked where we could take a bath and he said that there was a place about two miles out the east gate that would do the trick.   We decided to walk since it was such an early morning thing.  On our way out of town, we stopped at Grimml's Maps and Books and bought another map that he had searched for that was similar to the treasure map that we had found in Phrum Castle.  His copy of the map he found, we purchased for 10 gp and left to go take a bath.  Grimml turned out to be an elderly gnome.  He also tested the paper the map was written on and told us that it was trapped paper and we needed to sprinkle salt onto the paper under a brightly lit moon-sky at least half-moon or better and clear sky, no clouds.  To unlock the map and show the key, we must do this.

We arrived at the bathhouse, which happened to be a three-story manor house with a ten-foot white wooden gate around the property.  The house had 5 large chimneys that were spouting gray smoke.  There were two guards with halberds at the entrance of the fence and the told us that we would need to take our armor off and give our weapons to the man inside.   We were also told to keep a civil tongue.  We entered and found a pavilion that had lock boxes to store our armor, weapons, etc.  We also could disrobe and redress into white robes in order for our clothes to be cleaned.  Bram the wizard was taken to a special room and we heard him exclaim, "Oh my God!"  He then walked out wearing the white robes and a belt with the red pouch that was storing the maps and his money.  We then went inside the house and were greeted by a slender beauty with blue skin and green hair.  She clapped twice and three elven beauties and one human beauty descended the huge stairs and each took one of their respected race to a room on either side of the stairs.

Time passed blurry and slowly, for it seemed like hours of being pampered and massaged.  Each lady, after the massage, asked if there was anything else that they could do for us.  Nightwind, Ja'Lil, and Bram answered no, but I, Solon, was intrigued and whispered sweet nothings into the elven beauty's ear.  The next thing I remember is walking our the door and seeing the guys staring at my face.  Apparently I had a large red welt from what appeared to be a hand on my face.  We left, got dressed, and paid 5 gp per person to the man in the pavilion.

We then went and re-visited the Temple of Chauntea, where the paladin lives, to see if the symbol we drew had been answered.  It hadn't, so we headed back to Trynt and when we arrived were astonished that it was only 4 in the afternoon, we had left at nine in the morning and it takes 3 hours to walk the distance.  It seemed like six hours that we were at the manor house.   Something weird definitely happened.  We then went to Korgle's and asked if he knew where we could get some salt.  He pointed across the road and said,"You see those two houses, go right behind them and you'll see Lenny's Lamentations.  We went there, bought one pound of salt for one sp and noticed that Lenny was a halfling and that this was a general store/grocery store/restaurant/bakery all in one place.  We then headed back to Korgle's and had some dinner and rested for the night.

This is where we called game.  So until next time; safe gaming and have fun.